Month: February 2013

Truffles are up there with cupcakes on the ‘romantic treats’ list. We love this recipe for Raw Almond Choc Truffles from leading Australian nutritionist, Lola Berry. We agree with Lola – “the only trick is trying not to eat them all at once!” We have put the ingredient list and method below, but you can also watch Lola make these delicious truffles here on YouTube.

For further and nutritional information, check out: www.almondbreeze.com.au

Fed up of spilling ingredients on your cook books or iPad when you’re cooking? Check out this cool folding cook book stand from Joseph Joseph. It will keep your recipes clean and folds away so it can also be stashed on the book shelf when not in use.

Giving someone a cupcake (or two!) on Valentine’s Day is a sweet, romantic gesture, especially if you’ve made them yourself. The unique thing about these lovely Rose Red Velvet cupcakes is the rose tea infused butter, which adds another subtle flavour to this simple recipe. Decoration can be as simple or as fancy as you like – you could even serve them up with a single red rose – how romantic!

• 2 cups plain flour
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 ½ cups castor sugar
• 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
• 200g tea infused butter, melted (see recipe for this below)
• 2 eggs, lightly whisked
• 1tbsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1tbsp red food colouring

1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Line 18, 80ml (1/3 cup) capacity muffin pans with paper cases.
2. Sift flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Stir through the sugar.
3. Whisk the buttermilk, tea infused melted butter, eggs, vinegar and vanilla in a large jug until combined.
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture. Add the buttermilk mixture. Stir until just combined. Stir in the food colouring.
5. Divide the mixture among the lined pans.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centres comes out clean. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Tea infused butter:

• 280g unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp Dilmah Exceptional Rose with French Vanilla tea

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan until just liquid.
2. Add the tea leaves and continue heating the mixture for 5 minutes over very low heat.
3. Remove the butter from the heat and let the mixture stand for another 5 minutes.
4. Strain out the tea leaves by pouring the liquid butter through a sieve into a bowl.
5. Press the tea into the sieve with spoon on order to squeeze out the butter it has absorbed.

**there is a certain amount of butter that will be lost as it will stick to the tea leaves. One cup of butter will yield closer to 3/4 cup of butter. The recipe takes this into consideration, so only add 200g of tea infused melted butter to the cupcake mixture.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• Have the cream cheese cold and butter at room temperature.
• In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and rosewater until blended. Add sugar one-third at a time and beat just until smooth and the desired consistency. Do not overbeat.
• When the cupcakes are cold, pipe the cream crease frosting on top or use an ice-cream scoop to dollop the frosting on the stunning red-domed cupcakes.

Check out Dilmah’s range of other delicious teas, which are great to use as infusions in cooking or to drink everyday.

Mr Gift has a great range of kitchen utensils and gadgets that make perfect gifts for conscientious cooks and budding bakers.

Mangoes are one of my favourite summer fruits. They’re delicious on their own, but also add a tropical freshness to any summer dish. In the warmer months I adore recipes that involve a BBQ – it’s great to cook outside and there’s less washing up! This BBQ Mango and Lamb recipe’s a beauty. It would have been great for Australia Day (and Sam would definitely approve!), but why not give it a go for a relaxed but very tasty Valentine’s treat?

Make the most of this season’s mangoes with these BBQ lamb cutlets and mango cheeks

One of Collette White’s mantras is “Take care of you”, along with “Cut out the Crap” which is also the name of her website. Cut out the Crap is the result of Collette’s personal journey to improve her diet after developing severe food allergies. This inspiring lady challenges the way we think about food. Instead of considering food intolerance and allergies as an obstacle, Collette encourages her readers to see them as a positive challenge that requires creative thinking and a fresh approach to food.

“It is a beautifully satisfying meal, something a little bit fancy, but easy enough that anyone can cook it!” says Collette. We also love Collette’s cheeky idea of printing out the recipe and leaving it “on the kitchen bench for your partner with a very subtle message of “cook this for me” written on it???!!!” ENJOY!

Squid:

• 2 squid tubes (cleaned) – approx 300g each
• 6 toothpicks

Rice Stuffing:

• ¾ cup brown rice
• ½ a lemon
• 80g pistachios – toasted
• ½ teaspoon herbamare (or salt & pepper)
• ½ a bunch of flat leaf parsley – finely shredded
• ½ a bunch of coriander – finely shredded
• ½ a bunch of dill – finely shredded
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• Zest of ½ a lemon

Sauce:

• 2 red capsicums – approx 700g roughly chopped
• 2 brown onions – approx 250g roughly chopped
• 1-2 small red hot chilli sliced – (depending on how hot you like food)
• Pinch herbamare
• 2 tablespoons water
• ¾ cup water

Method:

1. Add the ½ lemon to the brown rice and cook as per normal.
2. Drain rice and set aside, allow to cool as long as you can (at least half an hour).
3. Once cooled, place the rice, pistachios, herbamare, parsley, coriander, dill, lemon juice and lemon zest into a bowl and mix well. Set aside.
4. Place all the ingredients for the sauce (EXCEPT FOR THE ¾ cup water) into a large frying pan. Cook over a high heat for 5 minutes (don’t let it burn) then add the ¾ cup water, reduce heat to medium and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Pour into a bowl and puree with hand whisk. Set aside. DON’T clean out the pan.
5. Stuff squid tubes 2/3 full with rice stuffing and close ends by threading with toothpicks.
6. Place 2 tablespoons oil into the frying pan you just made the sauce in and heat on medium -high.
7. Cook squid tubes for approx 5 minutes either side – until thoroughly cooked – but be careful not to overcook!

To serve:
Place the sauce at the bottom of the serving plate. Slice stuffed squid into approx 2cm pieces and place on top of sauce.

Serves 2 (large portions) or 3 with salad.

Check out Collette’s website, Cut out the Crap.

Mr Gift also has a great range of kitchen gadgets and accessories to help you prepare your dream Valentine’s Day feast.